Macrium combined Full and Diff schedule

Pentris · 02 Jun 2020

I am only just getting to grips with Macrium Reflect. I don't particularly like the backup notation with numbers, why can't they say 'Full', 'Diff' or 'Inc' instead of numbers.
I have read the very good tutorial about backups but it only seems to be able to do one of the functions, Full, Diff or Incr within a schedule. I am still using Easeus at the same time until I get Macrium to give me the same flexibility without intervention.
What I need is to be able to initially do a Full backup, then say 'X' number of Differential then repeat the Full backup plus 'X' Diffs etc. The only way I can see to do it at present is based on days
Monday - Full backup on one schedule
Tuesday to Sunday - Diff backups on another schedule
There must be a way somehow as this is meant to be a flexible programme.

Caledon Ken · 02 Jun 2020

Is it that you want to manually run the Diffs and then have Macrium know to kick off the full?

dalchina · 02 Jun 2020

What I need is to be able to initially do a Full backup, then say 'X' number of Differential then repeat the Full backup plus 'X' Diffs etc. The only way I can see to do it at present is based on days

Hi, just wondering why you think that's a useful sequence. Do you feel you need a sequence of independent sets of backup files?

FullA DiffA1 DiffA2... DiffAn then FullB DiffB1 DiffB2... DiffBn then FullC DiffC1 DiffC2... DiffCn

.. which could require a large backup disk

Personally I create a new full (base) image after upgrading (feature update) then start a sequence of differential backups keeping 5 differentials. Then I restart that sequence after the next feature update.

Why? 'cos that's when so much changes, so makes sense to create a new base image.

I also prefer to keep my backup disk offline so it cannot be affected by events that could affect my PC from theft to ransomware. (Some people do that and run scheduled imaging as well).

I don't know if this says anything new to you, but it seems applicable: a weekly sequence of imaging with a full image on Mondays:
Scheduling your images

Caledon Ken · 02 Jun 2020

I'm not sure that doing fulls and differentials means a big back up disk, depends on retention rules and what is being imaged.

My 76GB C: drive compresses to less than 30GB.

dalchina · 02 Jun 2020

If you were to save several such sets as I showed... if that was the intention. A, B, C... rather than just one full + differentials.

Caledon Ken · 02 Jun 2020

I do keep several sets, 4 x 30 = 120GB. Of course you have to added in differentials but again retention rules drive the size.

Pentris · 02 Jun 2020

The help from dalchina plus the Macrium guidance seems to fit the bill, albeit needing two schedules. It is not just feature updates that cause problems, MS are frequently issuing updates that cause issues. Only a few weeks ago both my computers developed 'resolving host' delays in opening all sites. I tracked it down to update KB4556799 was causing the issue. Quick, or not so quick, uninstall restored normal service. I have worked with computers for 39 years and you can never have too many backups. As my initial post on this forum I recently had to use an image backup from last December to restore a working PC after the recovery area of the PC, 1 year old, is corrupted and I was unable to restore windows operating system by the normal method. Thanks for all your help.

RolandJS · 02 Jun 2020

"...I don't particularly like the backup notation with numbers, why can't they say 'Full', 'Diff' or 'Inc' instead of numbers..."
One can change the name of the soon-to-be-created backup file during the backup setup process. I never did like those long numbers either, I change the name just before the actual backup starts.

Caledon Ken · 02 Jun 2020

A couple of things to note as I understand it.

If you delete, or a retention rule deletes a full it will delete all incrementals or differentials associated with that parent.

If your schedule for a specific definition has more than one activity at a specific time the Fulls takes precedent over diffs / incrementals and diffs take precedent over incrementals.

In my case I take an incremental of my data everyday with a weekly differential. The incrementals and differentials are both schedule for 9:15PM.

Bree · 02 Jun 2020

RolandJS said:

"...I don't particularly like the backup notation with numbers, why can't they say 'Full', 'Diff' or 'Inc' instead of numbers..."

No need, that is a property that can be shown in File Explorer. Click anywhere on the column titles, select More... and tick the box for 'Backup method'. This as well as 'Backup comments' were added to file explorer's list of available properties when Macrium was installed.

Macrium combined Full and Diff schedule-image.png

One can change the name of the soon-to-be-created backup file during the backup setup process - I think.
I never did like those long numbers either, I change the name just before the actual backup starts.

By default 'use the image ID as the file name (Recommended)' is ticked. You are free to untick that box and type any name you want for the image that will be created. I choose to name each full image to show which machine they are for, the version/build of Windows they have and the date (I have so many machines I need this to keep track of their images). Eg: DellLaptop_W10_18363-836_2020-05-31.

This base name will have the '-xx-yy' numbers appended to it. These are actually useful, they tell you in what order the Full and any associated Difeerential/Incremental were made.

'xx' is the increment number.
00 - Full image
01 - first incremental/differential
02 - Second incremental/differential

'yy' is the file number and is always sequential. 00, 01, 02, 03... . This will be different to the increment number only if files have been split. This can happen if files larger than 4GB are saved to a FAT32 file system or you are saving an image to multiple DVDs.

So the first file for a full image always ends with '00-00.mrimg'.

How backup sets are created and maintained - KnowledgeBase v7 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase